by Agha Shahid Ali
First, grant me my sense of history:
I did it for posterity,
for kindergarten teachers
and a clear moral:
Little girls shouldn’t wander off
in search of strange flowers,
and they mustn’t speak to strangers.
And then grant me my generous sense of plot:
Couldn’t I have gobbled her up
right there in the jungle?
Why did I ask her where her grandma lived?
As if I, a forest-dweller,
didn’t know of the cottage
under the three oak trees
and the old woman lived there
all alone?
As if I couldn’t have swallowed her years before?
And you may call me the Big Bad Wolf,
now my only reputation.
But I was no child-molester
though you’ll agree she was pretty.
And the huntsman:
Was I sleeping while he snipped
my thick black fur
and filled me with garbage and stones?
I ran with that weight and fell down,
simply so children could laugh
at the noise of the stones
cutting through my belly,
at the garbage spilling out
with a perfect sense of timing,
just when the tale
should have come to an end.
A Walk Through the Yellow Pages
Copyright ©:
1987, SUN-Gemini Press
A few random poems:
- Николай Языков – Давным-давно люблю я страстно
- Ready for Retirement by Mike Yuan
- Robert Burns: A Bottle And Friend:
- Юрий Коринец – Царь-баба
- The First Part: Sonnet 14 – Nor Arne, nor Mincius, nor stately Tiber, by William Drummond
- To the Author of a Poem Entitled Succession poem – Alexander Pope
- Youths Can Raise Funds, Fight Drug Abuse Through Education
- To R. B. poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- On A Miser (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Ruined World by Michael Yuan
- A Faery’s Lament poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster
- John Bleäke At Hwome At Night by William Barnes
- Why I Do Not Miss You! by Praveen Parasar
- Lament Of Mary Queen Of Scots by William Wordsworth
- I Shall Forget
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про стукача
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про правого инсайда
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про первые ряды
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня про белого слона
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня парня у обелиска космонавтам
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о Земле
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о вещем Олеге
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о сумасшедшем доме
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о штангисте
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о погибшем лётчике
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о конькобежце на короткие дистанции, которого заставили бежать на длинную
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня о двух красивых автомобилях
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня микрофона
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня лётчика
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня конченого человека
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня из радиоспектакля “Зелёный фургон”
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня Геращенко
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня Билла Сиггера
- Владимир Высоцкий – Песня автомобилиста
- Владимир Высоцкий – Живу я в лучшем из миров
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees
Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.
Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works